For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Naomi Pearce
Pearce Communications
510/528-0824
Email: naomi@well.com
Investor Contact:
Fiona Ross
The Financial Relations Board, Inc.
(310) 442-0599
Email: far@la.frbd.com
STARNINE SHIPS WEBSTAR 2.0, NOW TWICE AS FAST
— Robust Upgrade also Supports Java, Has Significantly Improved Security,
Browser-based Remote Administration, and Other Plug-In Features —
BERKELEY, Calif., November 20, 1996 — StarNine, the Mac(tm)OS division of
Quarterdeck Corp., shipped WebSTAR 2.0, with performance at least twice as
fast as its predecessor, server-side support for Java, significantly
enhanced security features, browser-based remote administration, and a
plethora of additional Plug-in features. Depending on the configuration,
performance increases often reach three-to-four times that of WebSTAR
1.3.1. WebSTAR 2.0 features a built-in Java Virtual Machine, allowing
webmasters to develop plug-ins using the full Java langauge and a set of
classes tailored to web server functions. Sporting enhanced security
features and the bundled WebSTAR/SSL security server for new purchases and
direct upgrades, WebSTAR 2.0 now makes commerce and secure document
transfer easier than ever. A robust new feature set, including
browser-based Remote Administration, HTTP File Upload capabilities,
expanded Server Side Includes, support for HTTP 1.1 KeepAlive, an Email
engine, and automatic directory indexing and BinHexing of MacOS-related
files further extends WebSTAR’s capabilities beyond serving content of any
type, including industry standards like Java, JavaScript, VRML, Shockwave,
Acrobat PDF, and QuickTime.
The WebSTAR 2.0 Upgrade is available today for current StarNine WebSTAR 1.X
users for an introductory price of $149 including WebSTAR/SSL, Userland’s
Frontier, Peter Lewis’ NetPresenz, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the
WebSTAR Tools CD. The introductory price is good until December 31, 1996,
after which time the Upgrade will cost $199. A Kanji version of WebSTAR
2.0 is scheduled be released in the coming months. WebSTAR 2.0 is
available today for $499, includes WebSTAR/SSL and the other bundled
software in the Upgrade package, plus Adobe’s PageMill. To download a
demo, new copy or upgrade of WebSTAR 2.0 point your browser to
(http://www.starnine.com/).
“Increased speed through dynamic caching is just one of the advantages to
WebSTAR 2.0,” commented Eric Zelenka, product manager for Internet servers
at the StarNine division of Quarterdeck. “Now instead of handling hundreds
of thousands of connections per day, we’re able to support several million
connections per day. Plus we’ve added server-side Java support and other
key features. The enhanced security features, including the bundling of
WebSTAR/SSL, means that it’s now easier and less expensive to conduct
secure business transactions on the web. With all of these features, you
can see why we are so excited about WebSTAR 2.0.”
How We Achieved Greater Performance
Depending on the configuration of the Macintosh server, users of WebSTAR
2.0 will experience anywhere from a two-to-four times increase in server
performance.
“WebSTAR 2.0 provides several performance enhancements over earlier
versions of the software and over any other Web servers,” commented Chuck
Shotton, Quarterdeck Fellow and primary author of WebSTAR. “We implemented
several different intelligent caching mechanisms for file data and file
system information, tuned TCP/IP communications performance, and eliminated
many dependencies on slower portions of the operating system.”
“The new WebSTAR 2.0 server is able to serve upwards of 5 million hits a
day, depending on network bandwidth,” continued Shotton, “and we really
haven’t run into the upper limit on performance yet.”
Increased Security Beyond SSL
The WebSTAR 2.0 package and the Upgrade package are both bundled with the
WebSTAR/SSL server. Beyond the automatic encryption capabilities of SSL,
WebSTAR 2.0 further implements many additional new security features.
“The server’s internal username/password database has been upgraded to
support tens of thousands of users and to provide a higher level of
performance when retrieving security information,” explained Shotton.
“We’ve also implemented a more flexible security mechanism that allows
realm based access control to be defined in terms of usernames, domain
names, or IP addresses for any file, folder, or combination of the two.
Improvements in the WebSTAR plug-in architecture also allow for an infinite
variety of third party security schemes to be seamlessly incorporated into
the server. This means that alternate security models like SHTTP, Kerberos,
or private Intranet standards can be easily implemented using WebSTAR 2.0.”
Plug-in Java Support
WebSTAR 2.0 features its own built-in Java Virtual Machine. The Java
Virtual Machine is integrated with the functions of the WebSTAR server and
the WebSTAR Plug-in API, allowing users to do complex plug-in development
in Java. This provides webmasters with a portable, cross-platform, state of
the art language for CGI and plug-in development that removes much of the
complexity of similar functions implemented using C or a scripting language
like Perl or AppleScript.
“WebSTAR is the first native web server on any platform to include direct
support for executing Java applets as extensions to the server,” said
Zelenka. “Servers on other platforms limit themselves to JavaScript or
Visual Basic as integrated server-side languages. Quarterdeck’s WebSTAR
adopts the full Java language as a standard method for plug-in development,
placing it on equal footing with Plug-ins traditionally developed in C.”
Other Fine Features
“The browser-based administration of WebSTAR is only one of many features
in this upgrade, but it allows a tremendous amount of freedom when it comes
to securely controlling and monitoring your server from across the Net,”
explained Zelenka. “With support for directory indexing, HTTP file uploads
and auto BinHexing of Mac OS files, it’s no longer necessary to run an FTP
server for directory browsing or to accept file uploads. Our new Server
Side Includes capabilities allow webmasters to serve dynamic content
tailored to the client, to the client, using a standard syntax that can be
used cross-platform, while a new email engine allows HTML forms and CGI
output to be processed and mailed through WebSTAR. The HTTP 1.1 KeepAlive
standard is now supported which eliminates much of the overhead between Web
clients and the server, enabling multiple documents and images to be
transfered much faster.”
WebSTAR 2.0 is available for downloading at (http://www.starnine.com/) for
only $149 for current owners of WebSTAR 1.3.1. Free 30 day evaluation
copies are also available. Developers can obtain the WebSTAR Software
Developer Kit for the WebSTAR API at
(http://www.starnine.com/webstar/webstarsdk.html). For more information on
these and other Macintosh products, call (800) 525-2580 or (510) 649-4949,
fax to (510) 548-0393, or send email to info@starnine.com .
About StarNine
StarNine Technologies, Inc. is a division of Quarterdeck Corporation
located in Berkeley, California, leading the development of Internet server
software and email connectivity products for the Mac OS. Best known for
WebSTAR, StarNine also produces and supports list server software, mail
server software and numerous Internet email gateways. Further information
on StarNine may be obtained by calling 510/649-4949, accessing StarNine’s
Web site at (http://www.starnine.com/), or by emailing info@starnine.com.
Quarterdeck Corporation is a developer and marketer of utilities and
Internet software for small business, home office, corporate, government
and individual personal computer users. Its worldwide headquarters are in
Marina del Rey, California, with Dublin, Ireland serving as its European
headquarters. Further information on Quarterdeck may be obtained by
calling 800/354-3222, accessing Quarterdeck’s Web site at
(http://www.quarterdeck.com/), or by emailing info@quarterdeck.com.